April 30, 2010

Manitoba Pork Council General Manager Andrew Dickson said rising hog prices over the last six months have helped put producers on a stronger financial footing.

"We had our annual meeting the middle of last month and it was a much different atmosphere than it would have been if we'd held it in September of last year," Dickson said.

"Back then, producers were getting only about US$92 for a 118-kilogramme finishing hog, which wasn't even enough to cover their feed costs," Dickson said. Today, they're getting about US$157, which covers their costs and adds profits.

Dickson was commenting after Statistics Canada issued new figures Wednesday (Apr 28) showing Manitoba was the only province to see an increase in hog inventories in the first quarter of this year. According to StatsCan, there were 2.55 million hogs in the province as of April 1, which was a 0.8% increase from the 2.48 million in the first quarter of 2009.

Dickson said Manitoba's increase shouldn't be interpreted as a sign the hog industry is on the rebound, because 0.8% is within the statistical margin of error. "The best that you can say is that we've stabilised, not declining any more," he added.

He noted hog prices usually peak in the first half of the year and decline in the second half, and prices on the futures market for December deliveries are running at between US$120 and US$125 per pig.

Another concern is the rising value of the Canadian dollar versus the US dollar, which is the currency hog prices are set in.